The current trend, in terms of motor vehicles, whether entailing automobiles, utility vehicles, trucks or buses, is to offer increasing amounts of glazed surfaces. Thus, in particular, vehicles have been proposed having a roof equipped with one or more glazed elements. In certain cases, the entire roof is made of glass or of a similar material allowing sunlight to pass through.
In order to increase the window surface allowing light transmission, it has also been sought to propose large-sized glazed surfaces while minimizing the number of glazed panels of the roof. For example, the rear window or the windscreen can be located in the extension of the glazed roof in order to provide for a visual appearance of continuity (without any visible and protruding frame or separating strut, seen from the exterior even if, in practice, they correspond to distinct glazed elements).
It has also been necessary to take account of the fact that these glazed surfaces have to be incorporated into the roofs of present-day or future vehicles which have streamlined shapes that are generally non-plane and are most frequently incurvated or rounded widthwise and also sometimes lengthwise.
Besides, solutions have been proposed to make apertures in the roof especially to be able to form a sunroof module.
Thus, a widespread technique for releasing an aperture in the roof consists in tilting a movable window glass element mounted on a frame towards the exterior of the vehicle around an axis attached to the plane of the roof, in order to release a passage between the window glass element and the frame.
This technique has the drawback of allowing for only a half opening of the roof in order to prevent it from being pulled away under the effect of aerodynamic pressure and of being capable of implementation only for small-sized windows glasses.
Another sunroof technique also used conventionally consists in making the window glass movable above or below the roof in a plane substantially parallel to the plane of the roof. There is thus a first known technique for a roof pierced with an aperture that can be closed off by a sliding glazed panel housed in the lining of the roof. One drawback of this technique is that the dimensions of the apertures in the roof and therefore in the glazed surfaces enabling them to be closed off are limited.
One problem common to these sunroof techniques is that water, for example in the form of drops of condensation or rain, can penetrate the car interior space when the movable glass window or the sliding panel at least partially releases the aperture formed in the roof.
To cope with this problem, it has been proposed to equip the contour of the movable window glass with a peripheral container for recovering water in which the water deposited on the surface of the movable window glass is collected.
One drawback of this technique is that the receptacle may get completely filled and in certain cases overflow. The excess water may then flow into the car interior space through the aperture, which of course is unsatisfactory.
It has been observed especially with these techniques that this drawback is amplified by the fact that the container can be filled above all with water outside periods when the sunroof is open, in other words when the sunroof is closed, which greatly reduces the efficiency of the container.
Another drawback of this technique is the need for the presence of a container for recovering water which reduces the window surface allowing light transmission and/or the permissible size of the opening on the exterior and/or the volume of the car interior space.
Yet another drawback of this technique and other prior-art sunroof techniques is that the elements designed to recover water can lower the aesthetic qualities of the vehicle.
It is also been proposed to drain water towards the exterior of the vehicle.
One drawback of prior-art techniques providing for a draining of water is that they are generally complex to implement, especially when it is necessary to remove water deposited on the sliding glazed panel.
Yet another drawback of the prior-art techniques referred to here above is that, in certain cases, water can stagnate in the water recovery and or draining container, releasing an unpleasant odor.